Empty Hearts
by fevertw
Summary: Slight AU. When the turtles learn someone has tampered their past, they do everything to get it the way it was before; even if they don't know what before was.
1. Prologue

Authors note: Hey guys I'm back! This will be a few chaps long, and there would be no scheduled updates as usual haha. Anyway, I hope you guys like this story, it's a little confusing right now but everything should make sense soon. Reviews would be nice : )!

* * *

If it weren't because he was running a fever, Donnie would be more than angry. He didn't want—nor like—to admit that he was lost. And for that stupid cold he's fighting, it was making everything twice as hard.

His feet splashed on the cold water, and his arms folded over each other as his spine shivered. He hated being out in the sewers during nighttime. Everything was scarier, and it was way too dark for his liking. Papa always claimed to adapt to the dark, but all he can see was the water faintly dripping off the pipes. If only he brought his flashlight.

Donnie sighed. He was smart, and gifted as Papa would say, but he didn't memorize the sewers, and can't see much to add the cherry on top. As smart as he was, what he did was dumb, he couldn't believe he left his spot. Raph would have come for him any minute if he stayed where he was. He hoped that Splinter realized that one of his sons was missing.

"Raaaphie?" His voice echoed, Raph should be around here right? He was bringing their toys.

His thoughts clunk around his headache, Raphie was probably home getting Papa once he realized he left the spot. And once they found him, and got him home into bed, he wasn't getting out of it. He didn't care what Raphie had to say to him, or what anyone had to say at this point. He trudged his legs forward, defeated.

There was a splash, a loud one, and his heart beat way faster than he could think. Rats splashing the puddles fooled him, but this was a larger splash, like his father was coming towards him. His heart leapt in excitement as he ran, he didn't care about being punished, or the long grounding Splinter would give him. He's gonna go home and hug all his brothers to feel the warmth and love he was so missing right now, he was—Donnie skidded to a stop.

He was met with a dark silhouette, taller, and gave Donnie this weird feeling in his tummy.

That wasn't Papa, that can't be… the man was silent, his back was facing him, instead of the welcome arms his father would have done…

He can hear his own breathing as he backed up; his eyes glued to the man, but Papa taught him to hide from humans. He concealed himself in the shadows, no normal human can see him, his Papa has said, his back arched as much as it can, and he held his breath. The human didn't see him, couldn't have for being faced the other way, so Donnie freaked the heck out when the man turned and looked directly at him.

"Donatello." The voice calm as like a human-turtle didn't freak him out, and Donnie's face paled. He didn't move, he couldn't—not when fear took over him—Papa wasn't here to protect him - this human knew his name somehow.

He wasn't running away like Papa's story tells; he was staring at him, like he knew him. After what felt like minutes, Donnie stepped out of the shadows. "You know me?" He whispered out, fear clinging on his throat which made his voice raspy and small.

The silhouette came closer to him, and Donnie can barely see something sticking out his hand. Like it was… sharp? He backed up again but stopped himself before going near the end of the tunnel.

"Donatello, I am your father's friend." He crouched down to be the same level as the toddler. "Are you lost?" He asked, grinning under his helmet as Donnie slowly nodded. His brown eyes traced along the mans, each gulp he took was painful. He didn't know if it was for his sore throat or fear.

"I just want to go home." He said, his posture slouching as the man didn't lash out at him or called him names like his Papa have warned. This man was his fathers' friend, why was he being so scared for?

"Come here, boy." He told him, and with reluctance, Donnie listened. He was a stranger, but at this point he was his only hope.

Donnie rubbed his face as sweat beaded down. The kneeling man put a hand on his back, and Donnie froze.

"Now tell me," Donnie looked at his eyes, "why are you out here all alone, little one?" The man reached for his head and Donnie ducked away shyly.

"I was with my brother." Donnie told him, and his brown eyes looked at his. He was mostly looking at his burns and quickly blinked away. "And I got lost."

"I will bring you home." He stood up and took the boy's hand.

A smile ghosted on Donnie's face. "Really?" He asked in disbelief. And through his aching body, he bounced up and down. "Wait…" He exhaled, and his brows knitted in thought. He quickly pulled his hand away from the man. Due to the dark, he had forgotten about the sharp metal and his palm neatly sliced right through it.

Donnie inhaled, pressed his hands together, and eyes welt up in tears. "… You're a stranger." Donnie uttered his voice nasally, and the small turtle looked at the cut. "Papa warned me about you people." He started to back away, his thoughts were frantic, and he was trying to figure a way out. He doesn't know how he knew about him or his papa, but his father warned him about the people from above. He couldn't get himself in trouble cause of some man knowing about him.

"Donatello," the man's voice was smooth and calm, while Donnie's heart was racing, ", no need to run, we are all friends here." He reached for the toddler, but Donnie shook his head.

"You're not my friend! I don't know how you know my name, but I'm not dumb!" He wiped away the tears, afraid to turn around from this man. His hand trembled from the cut, and it was stinging at this point. Cuts turns to infections, and he knew that. He wanted to go home, now.

"You have three brothers'." The man began, taking each step closer to the boy as Donnie took one back, his eyes not blinking at all despite it stinging with tears. "Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. I know all about you, Donatello and you know none about me?"

"I-I, Papa mentioned no one. I don't even know your name!" Donnie yelled in his defense and his lips were quivering, he wanted papa to come out of nowhere and get him out of here. But the man—this stranger—looked hurt, and Donnie was feeling bad. "I-I-I'm sorry." He uttered, feeling rude for yelling at him. All the man wanted to do was to help, but Donnie lashed out on him instead.

The man was quiet, and Donnie couldn't tell if he was upset or thinking. But, Donnie was thinking too, if he left, the man could follow him, and he didn't know where his home was to begin with. He didn't have much of an option.

The deep voice sliced through Donnie's vulnerable thoughts, "I am Oruku Saki." And he knelt, "but they call me the Shredder."

Donnie liked it better when the man was with eye-level with him. Even through the dark, it was better than the Shredder towering over him. Maybe he can trust him, he does know a lot about him. "Why do they call you that?" He asked, now curious as he moved forward and was only a few feet away.

"Come and you will find out." Donnie looked at the extended arm, Papa used to do that when he would scrape his knees in training, or cut himself from metal scraps. He looked at his cut.

"Don't do any tricks." Donnie warned and folded his arms. The only noise in the sewers were the constant dripping in the back, a few rats squeaking, and his own breathing. There were no loud splashes, no yelling, his Papa and Raphie aren't coming. Despite only being five, Donnie feared that this man was his only hope to getting home.

"There will be no tricks, Donatello." His hand was still out. The two stared back at one another. The man didn't move, and Donnie didn't either. He sounded just like his father, always calm and tranquil, almost comforting.

After, what felt like hours, Donnie pursed his lips, and slowly came forward to the man. His bleeding hand rested gently against the metal like glove.

"No tricks." He said and closed his hand. "We are all friends here." He repeated, his head tilting and his eyes squinting as Donnie thought he was smiling. He couldn't tell though, that dumb helmet he wore was blocking his mouth.

Donnie smiled, and though lightheaded, even giggled. "I guess so." He tilted his head, mimicking the man as his eyes sparkled in curiosity. "Is it cause of your armor they call you Shredder?" He asked, he used the back of his hand to knock on the hard metal on the Shredder's arm. Papa never talked about having a friend who wore metal.

"Yes and no," Shredder told him, and Donnie kept finding similarities between him and his father. With one hand, Donnie watched as he signaled him to come closer, he cupped the same hand around his mouth like he would whisper to him; his brothers would do that in the Dojo to not disturb Papa's lesson. "I will tell you something but promise me you would tell no one."

"Yeah, of course! But after you tell me, can you take me home, please? Papa is probably worried sick." Donnie used his other hand to scratch the back of his head. He couldn't wait to tell his father about his friend coming to visit as a surprise.

"They call me the Shredder–" He began to whisper and let go of Donnie's hand, the boy looked at him with growing excitement "–for this!"

The sharp metal struck Donnie's neck, and in the matter of seconds he was on the ground. His throat gave out an almost inhumane wheeze, and he grunted as something wet crushed his chest.

Donnie stared at what was squishing him, he soon realized it was the man's foot. The toddler feeling betrayed, looked up to him. He opened his mouth to speak, but the gurgle of blood replaced his voice. Betrayal turned to fear; his face paled and weakly shook his head as he saw the metal rise. The man lowered his metal and took off the pressure of his chest.

Instead, he knelt, and lifted the boy's chin with the three-finger-like- metal, exposing his neck.

"There is no need for me to stab you again, Donatello." Donnie could only respond with blood bubbling out of his mouth. His eyes glazed in confusion and pain, as he blinked to let the tears fall from his eyes. He was wheezing trying to breathe, but wheezing was becoming hard for him. His small frame trembled as he could not get oxygen.

"Killing you quickly would only satisfy me for a couple of seconds. That is why I will not be doing that." The metal disappeared from Donnie's eyesight, and Donnie's head lolled limply like a rag doll at the man.

Donnie watched him sat down as his eyes were blurring and his head became foggy as time went by. He just wanted to go home; even though he was hurt, he wanted to stay awake to know his Papa would be coming. But it was getting harder for him to keep his eyes open, his chest was becoming heavy, and his throat was burning.

What felt like agonizing hours to him, he closed his eyes only to open them and see the man has disappeared.

Papa had always taught them how to treat cuts, small littered cuts they would get from training or rough housing. But never something like this, the sharp metal hurt more than when he fractured his arm. As he laid there, his body stinging in pain, he realized Papa wasn't gonna be happy to realize he talked to a stranger. His worst fear came true; a stranger has hurt him for no reason.

Donnie reached for his neck, feeling the pools of blood flow between his stubby fingers. Maybe he can fix this, Papa would never know this happened. Maybe when Raphie comes, he can help him explain a story of how he fell on something sharp. Papa shouldn't even know that they were out…

His mind became muddled as he took one last breath; Raphie…he should be coming soon with the toys.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Hey guys, the last chapter was a prologue. This chapters a little slow, but lots is revealed! I put this story as a slight AU, due to the turtles being a little OOC (out of character) as you can probably tell in this chapter or the future chapters coming up. Also wanted to give a thanks to all the support, such as reviews, favorites and follows. It means a lot to me :).

By the way, any goofs or typos are my mistake, I don't have a Beta, haha.

* * *

Rustling through the garbage, Mikey was running out of patience. After going through two dumpsters in the alley next to some pharmacy stores, they couldn't find anything out of their luck.

"Anything bro?" Leo shouted, looking at an old watch he carried with him. Splinter didn't like it when they were out for too long, especially when it was nights they were ambushed. Their old father worried too much for them, so Leo was trying not to go over their time limit.

"Uhhhh…" Mikey's voice echoed through the graffitied dumpster before pulling his head out of the rummage, "nope." He sighed, pulling out a banana peel from his head in disgust. "Maybe the third one wasn't the one, bros," dropping the peel back into the dump, Mikey jumped out of the garbage.

"Maybe we should call it quits," Leo started, turning his back to his two brothers' in defeat. They didn't go topside often, so they needed to restock as much medicine as they can find. Splinter was too old to go scavenging himself, so the three took over about a year ago.

"Yeah, I agree with Leo, we've been searching for hours! Let's give it a rest and try again tomorrow." Raph replied, shaking his head, "we have better luck tomorrow anyway, inventory comes through and they'll toss expire stuff away. We can come and have Mike dig it up for us." He jabbed his thumb at Mikey, smiling.

"It's always me, huh?" He glared at Raph, sticking his tongue out and shook his head. "but bro's can we please stay topside for a little longer?" He pleaded, looking mostly to Leo with his puppy eyes.

Leo hid his lips in a bitter expression, "Topside?" He asked, his face crinkled in disgust; "why?"

If Mikey could get a nickel at the things they don't have in common, well he wouldn't be living in the sewers and have a nice suite in Manhattan. His two older brothers' were such mother hens sometimes. "I hate being cooped up in that old Lair, it's so fresh out here and there are lights instead of candles. Imagine if we could stay out here until sunrise." He closed his eyes and brought his hands to his chest, humming in glee. He glared Leo, "and you wanna go home? Imagine the fun we can have here!"

His happiness was cut short, "you know how dangerous it is, Mike." Leo told him rolling his eyes, "we can have fun in the lair _later_, Splinter's sick and he needs us to be there for him."

"Aww, you two are just scared of being out here." Mikey started, watching Raph with a pout as he reached down to open the sewer lid. "Plus, we can keep searching for some meds!"

"We're not scared, Mike, Splinter just feels better knowing we're home." Raph said, and Mikey sighed loudly, his two brothers sounded identical sometimes.

This time, he couldn't argue, Splinter always had this fear in him about his sons and Mikey couldn't blame the old guy. It sucked though, to have a feeling that someone was out to get them; he nodded glumly to whatever Raph was saying.

Mikey ducked his head as the sewer lid flew unexpectedly at him, whatever funk he was in forgotten.

With a clank, Mikey looked at the thrown sewer lid and back to his bros. Raph backed away from the sewers, hand on Sai. The alley they were in shook below their feet, until a dark green portal opened above of them.

Leo, hands holding Katana's, looked at his two youngest, giving them a shrug of confusion.

"Duude's it's… Renet?" Mikey spoke up, lowering his hand down as she came through the portal. Mikey pushed Raph off him. They've only met Renet a handful of times, and every time they did, it sent them into some wild adventure.

Leo dropped his arms down and took a good look at the sorcerer trainee. "Is everything okay?" Leo asked, as he approached her with Mikey right behind his trail.

"Hey guys!" The trainee looked around the alley, acting like it should look different. "Everything's okay in my part, but I need your help." She said shyly, "Something's wrong with the future, but I can't fix it myself, as usual."

"What's wrong with the future?" Leo asked, feeling the anxiety from their friend. Renet only came to them for help to pass her test, but this didn't sound like one of her tests at all.

"Well, I don't know the certain extent to it, but Lord Simultaneous and I regularly check the timelines," she laughed, "well it's our jobs to check it regularly, but this morning it was going off and my Master said there was a breach."

Leo looked at her friend with an unsure smile, "and you want us to do what exactly? We don't really do well with time travelling."

"Wellllll," she sighed dramatically, "My Master figured out who it was, and since I can't fight and am limited to my skills, I came to you guys for help."

"Oh no." Raph threw his hands up, "we're not going to some hoo-ha adventure again and get almost killed." He said bluntly, shaking his head.

"What? You guys are always up for an adventure!" Renet claimed, looking directly at Leo.

"Hey hey, we got a lot in our hands you really can't have your Master and you go solve it?" Leo asked, placing the swords behind his shell.

"No, he wants me to do it by myself. He's a Master Jerk, remember?" She rolled her eyes, always having to do the work herself; "But if Donnie was here, I'm sure he would gladly help." She stuck her tongue out, thinking maybe she should go down the sewers and grab him from his lab. Her friend, always reluctant and hesitant to help, would end up helping her more ways than she can ask for.

So, Renet wasn't expecting confused looks.

"Donnie?" Mikey said like his tongue was thick and the name was foreign, "who?"

"Don't play with me guys, I'm on a timed schedule, you know?" She tapped the watch on her arm, but the three shook their heads, "tall turtle, purple mask… "She rolled her eyes; "AKA your brother?"

Silence, and Renet saw Raph's face paled the most.

"That doesn't make sense," Leo spoke first, "Renet you out of all people should know he's dead."

"_What_?" Her voice sounded like she was punched; "that's impossible!" She almost threw her staff, her blue eyes wide with mostly confusion. She knew her friends wouldn't joke about that, but if it were true, why did Mikey act like Donnie didn't exist?

"He's dead what do you mean that's impossible! Boom, gone, dead, never to be seen again!" Raph exploded; "I don't care what alternate universe _you've_ been at, but I don't wanna hear it or his name again!"

Renet put her hands on her helmet, waving her time scepter in a frenzy. "There's supposed to be four of you! Donatello's not supposed to be dead!" Her voice cracked as she got louder. She kept saying it like if repeating herself would change things.

"But he is!" Raph yelled, and Leo held him back as he almost charged at the lady. In that split second when Raph turned to Leo, his green eyes were in turmoil, and Leo's grip tighten around his brother's shoulders, pulling him back.

"Raph, calm down!" Leo told him, as Raph struggled to be released from Leo's hold. Leo felt his muscles strained. "Let her speak, I want to know what the shells going on with our brother."

"How, after all these years, can you come saying he's not supposed to be dead? We buried him years ago!" Raph yelled as Leo slowly let him go, his hands clenched his Sais tightly, but there were no signs of him tempting to pull them out. Leo still stayed at his side; out of his two brothers' he knew Raph was the most sensitive talking about their deceased brother.

"I—I don't know! I'm as lost as you guys are, promise!" Renet put her hands down; "maybe… maybe I can look at the timelines and look at what changed? This just doesn't sound right, I literally talked to him last time I saw you guys."

Raph was fuming, but Renet ignored it as she put the scepter down. She sat down on the pavement and closed her eyes to concentrate; less than a minute a sage-colored cloud engulfed her. From her view, she could pull out timelines without having to go to wherever she needed to go see.

She swiped them away like she was swatting a fly, until a timeline was surrounded in red instead of the white fade. Red was never good, she knew, so out of curiosity, she pulled it up and zoomed in.

* * *

"What's taking so long?" Mikey asked, unable to see what Renet was seeing, all he saw was a green cloud engulfing her. Renet rarely flaunted her ability around them, most of the time the three figured she was still learning her job, so for Mikey this was very new to him.

"I don't care." Raph replied, "we need to leave before she gets out of the cloud, she's nuts." He jabbed his thumb towards her direction, shaking his head, before whispering; "lunatic."

"But she's also our friend, Raph." Leo said, "I'm as confused as you are, and she is too, maybe you're right, I think she went to some alternate dimension." He shrugged, "his death happened when we were young, too young for it to really impact us."

Raph bit back what he was going to say to Leo, his eyes darting to Renet as the cloud disappeared into thin air. Renet's face was paler than paper and fell on the palms of her hands in exhaustion. She didn't pull up timelines like that, especially since she was still considered weak to her Master. She didn't care, she never took what her Master said to her heart, but, he left out some information about the whole future scenario, everything was tying in together… weirdly.

"How did your brother die?" She asked, tears pooling in her eyes as Mike and Leo helped her up from the ground. She mustered the strength to not lose it in front of them, but _everything_ was making sense, yet her friends were still behind on the news.

"Starvation." Leo replied lowly, his head lowering to not look at Renet's eyes "we think he hit his head somewhere and ended up lost. Splinter found him days later." He said vaguely.

Renet shook her head, holding back a sob. They didn't know. "That's not what I saw."

"Then how did he die?" Mikey asked, dreading the answer.

Renet studied the turtles faces, as a trainee Lord Simultaneous never prepared her for this. These turtles were only sixteen, they were so young, and she was afraid of how they will react. She took a deep breath, feeling lightheaded;

"Murder."


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys, my irregular updates are gonna show now 'cause college has started and somehow accidentally tangled up between two jobs lmao. But thanks guys for being patient, this chapter leads up to a chapter I'm really excited about (I just have to write it, haha). But please let me know if you like it so far !

* * *

Raph felt like he was sucker punched in the gut; his face paled, and he stared into the unknown. His heart was beating fast, but everything was in slow motion. His body weight like paper, crashing on the pavement below him.

He blinked, realizing someone has caught him. His eyesight was still adjusting, but in that second, he realized he had some sort of panic attack.

"I-I'm fine." He stuttered, out of breath, not even knowing what anyone was saying around him. It was just rushed whispers all around him as he placed his feet on the ground, catching his breath.

"You're not fine if you just out right collapsed on the floor." He looked at Leo hauling him up, his brow lifted in surprise.

"I—what?" Hearing it from one of his brothers threw him off, the news of his dead brother even more so.

"Dude, you almost full on fell on the ground if Leo didn't catch you," Mikey was crouched down fanning at him, so he stood up tall, worry displayed on his face. "You sure you okay? I haven't seen you do that in years." He rubbed the back of his neck, dryly, Raph wasn't one to open his feelings.

"I said I'm fine." He said bitterly, Leo released him once he sustained his footing. He looked at Renet, fully forgetting she was there for a split second.

Despite that, he still had questions and wanted answers; "who murdered him?" He didn't care for the worry looks that his brothers were giving him; right now, though lightheaded, it wasn't about him. They may be eleven years too late, but it's better than not knowing their whole lives.

"It was the Shredder," she breathed, like words would hurt him, "I came 'cause the Shredder took over your city, which isn't supposed to happen, but now," she paused, thinking, "now I think I know what's going on."

"That doesn't make sense," Leo furrowed his brows in thought, "we haven't met Shredder until last year, no one knew we existed until then, how…?"

"He time traveled, but that's the one thing I can't figure out, only my Master and I have the power of time, heck, _I'm_ still learning. I don't know how he had access to time travel." She shook her head, it felt like too much for her. Like bricks came tumbling down, and pinning her but she couldn't think about how her friends are feeling.

To think, their whole lives that their bro has died in some freak accident only to discover it was some enemy going back in time. But Renet couldn't figure out how he got the tech to do something so… out of his league. Her friends told her about Shredder so many times, but she never thought she would have to deal with him herself.

"For your whole future trip maybe, we should take a rain check," Mikey said, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, I was thinking we should go to the past instead; I think if we fix the mess Shredder made, it will fix the future too."

"Are you saying that Shredder killing Donnie _changed _the future?" Leo asked Renet, he may not know his brother, but for one brother to be down which led Shredder to take over New York was a little overboard.

"Yes," Renet replied quickly, "I mean, I'm sure if this happened to one of you guys it would have the same affect. But, Donnie's useful to you guys."

"Useful?" Raph asked, eyes squinting in thought. "No offense, but we live fine without him. Is this all necessary?"

"Unless you want to be Shredder's next victim, then yes." The sorcerer raised her voice, "he's your brother and _my _friend. I need to make this right even if you don't."

"I do." Raph shook his head, "I just… can't believe... _this._"

"I want to fix this, too." Mikey piped in, "I mean it'll be cool to have our brother back, four evens us out for once." He said to lighten the mood a bit, but he was being serious about them being back to four; they usually separated into one another or they stayed as a team and never split up. It depended on Leo's and Splinter's mood.

"Me too," Leo rested his hand on Mikey's shoulder, giving it a squeeze, "Shredder ruined our lives without us even realizing it, we have to stop him. Who knows what else he plans to do with this new _trick_ of his."

Everyone looked at Raph, the turtle sighed loudly, "Shredder needs to be taken down and I will do anything to have him dead." He directed a look to Renet, "so what are you waiting for? Let's go."

* * *

Raph jumped from the portal and looked around his surroundings. They were in the sewers, but the feeling of home wasn't there. He had this tingle, the kind of sixth sense of doom, but it wasn't targeting him. He looked at his brothers', fearing that something was going to hurt them.

"Where are we?" He still asked, everything feels right just nothing seems like it. That feeling when he entered an abandoned building and then an ambush would come seconds later rose; he pushed the feelings aside. They weren't after them.

"Uhh dude," Mikey poked his head from behind Renet's tall frame, "I think the correct question is, _when _are we?" Doubling back his goofy grin, he went back to being behind of Renet as he heard Raph literally fume.

"Does it even matter?! When, where, what, I'm still lost, what even is the plan?" Maybe it was the adrenaline or the fact that he nearly passed out that he agreed to go back to the past. He doesn't even know this brother; just old memories leading up to his death.

Before Renet can even speak, Leo entered the conversation. "Quiet down you two," he said in a hush but demanding voice, "we're here to save our brother."

"And to fight Shredder." Renet awkwardly said, and she looked at Raph, "and we should be back from eleven years ago, if I'm correct, we should be here before the Shre-"

A loud cry echoed off the walls before hearing what sounded like a wet stomp. The four of them froze, staring back at one and another in the dark. Renet grimaced, she knew exactly what that was, and realized she went to the wrong time. They need to get Donnie out of there, not witness him die. She didn't want her friends to see this, but Leo was already running towards the noise, Katana's out.

She grabbed Mikey's arm, as Raph followed his pursuit and the two made eye contact.

"You don't want to see this, Michelangelo." She said in a hush, raw voice from emotions; Mikey couldn't figure out what. It was anger, sad, confusion, he never seen her friend like this.

He came close to his friend, as Renet's hand let go of his wrist; "We can handle this, Renet, whatever Shredder did ruined us, and we all wanna fix it." And with that, he ran to catch up with his brother's.

Renet shook her head and looked at the scepter. It was so hard to figure it out sometimes, but it was still glowing blue, which is good, and she needed to get the guys and go at the right time.

* * *

Leo knew he was close, the cried turn to what sounded like gurgling and spitting, and he swore his stomach flipped in fear. Leo turned to a corner and halted the group with his katana.

Wide-eyed, the turtle's heard the deep voice of Shredders; "Killing you quickly would only be satisfying for a couple of seconds. That is why I would not be doing that."

Pushing the Katana down, Raph jumped over it and roared with anger almost sounding inhumane. "Shredder!" He roared; his Sai's gripped tightly until his knuckles were a pale green.

But the Shredder walked over the limp body of his younger brother like it was nothing and acted like he couldn't hear him.

"You're a coward! You're willing to kill a five-year-old who's done nothing to you!" Raph walked closer, baring his Sai's, they were inches away from each other; the other two behind their brother, Shredder opened the portal.

A pink hue displayed half of Shredder's body, as he turned to the group; "Of course, he has done something, _turtle_. I assume my planned has work for you all to come to stop me." Before any words could come out of the turtle's mouth, Shredder's laughter boomed as he entered and disappeared like dust.

"Damn it!" Raph threw his Sais on the ground and they bounced further away from him, "what a fucking coward."

Usually cussing wasn't allowed in Leo's uptight attitude, but this time he let it slip. They fought Shredder only a handful of times, he usually let his clan deal with them, and he acted like the final boss in some video game. But, every time they fought him, he grew stronger, and they always lost. It resulted in wounds that took time to heal, and failure that never went away.

They couldn't let Shredder just leave like that; he couldn't believe his eyes what he has done. There was no honor, unfair, to murder a child to have things his way. And in a way, he got what he wanted, for them to fail without one, but they were going to fix this, somehow.

The sound of gasping came back loud and clear, and with wide eyes he looked back at the fallen child.

"Guys…" Mikey was first to be with his supposedly older brother, his voice broken in unsureness.

"W-we can fix it." Raph angered voice was smoldered with fear. His whole life he thought Donnie died of starvation. He was lost, and Splinter searched for days for him to find his body washed up at the other side of the sewers. Splinter never gave them a description, when he saw his brother, he was wrapped in a white sheet stained in red. He only could see his face.

Pulling out his mask, Raph used it as a makeshift band-aid, but it was no use. The toddler's throat was slit, and because of the heavy amounts of blood pouring out, he hit his artery.

"Come on, come on buddy, you can pull through." Raph still said soothingly to the toddler.

Donnie's eyes were anywhere but to him. His empty glaze stared to the unknown, and suddenly he looked at him. The dimmed eyes slightly widened in recognition. He mustered what little energy he had. "Ruh –" blood pooled down his chin, and he spit, "eee" it sounded like a whine, but Raph knew he was saying his old nickname. He hasn't heard it in years.

"No no no no." A rough hand pulled him up, and he made contact with Leo into an embrace, "he can't Leo," his voice cracked, "it's not fair, he can't."

"I'm sorry, Raph," Leo looked at their brother, the child had stopped showing signs of life. He held his brother close, hearing sniffs from him.

"I'm going to fix this," he said between sniffs, and Leo let him talk it out. Raph and Donnie were so close as kids, it affected him so much that he blocked his death out and acted like Don never existed. And now, revisiting and witnessing, Leo felt his skin crawl. He never thought he can hate a human so much.

Renet slipped into the conversation, slowly joining the group after they fled. For turtles, she sometimes forgot how quick they are. "It makes no sense," she said in a hushed voice, Mikey was still crouched to their now dead brother. "Shredder's portal was pink."

No one said anything, Leo and Raph were no longer hugging as they stood a little too far from their dead brother.

Mike stood up, watching Renet fumble around with her scepter. "Why does it matter that it's pink?" He finally asked, stepping away from his brother and closer to his friend.

"Mine is green. He's using some alien's tech; it shouldn't be pink."

"Kraang." Leo lifted his head up at that, "Shredder and Kraang teamed up a few months back, their tech is way advanced. A little too advanced." He grimaced, two of their biggest nemesis are teamed up scared him a little too much to the fact he's been trying to ignore it. Ignoring it would only slap him right back into the face, and it did. Even with Shredder's doing of killing Donatello, the Kraang brought the tech to him, they're both responsible.

"Okay, so we figured out where he got the tech, now we have to go right to the source." Renet said, rolling her eyes up so she can blink away her tears.

She looked at her friends; they were all saddened of their death of a brother but Renet knew this was some torn hole in their dimension, that his death didn't happen. They just—she cleared her throat.

"We need to go back." Grieving wasn't the option, she was taught to continue, and, in her mind, she knew they would fix this, that this child wouldn't be dead in a few minutes. Her friends were a little distraught, but once they go back and see their brother alive, they will be okay.

Hopefully.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Woah, hey guys I'm back ! I hope you guys are still alive and thanks for being patient ! :). This chapter is my fave for some revelations, but next chapter I promise will have action! Please let me know what you guys think so far, thanks for the support.

* * *

For someone who's been time travelling for years, Renet always hated messing up, but when her staff turned to that crimson red, she hated that more.

"Great." She mumbled to herself, but the three turtles were able to hear. She looked up at the three confused faces, and shook the staff; "it's overheated, we're stuck here." She didn't even look where 'here' was, but her three friends knew where they were.

"We're in the lair, I just can't figure out when," Leo whispered, looking at his surroundings. They ended up in the garage, and with the two doors ajar, anyone can see them. The garage was filled with old rummage toys, and boxes that no one used so Splinter stored it in this room. It was obvious that there was heavy rain earlier from the week, most boxes were wet, and the rags piled up in a soaking seep. He remembers they used the rags all the time to clean up the water from spilling into their home. Leo wanted to look through the boxes, to figure out what year they were in, and how far they were from saving Donnie, but…

"Someone's coming." Raph said in a harsh whisper, and Leo snapped back to reality and grabbed Renet as all four blended into the shadows. Out of habit, their eyes delved into a deep shade of white, quieting their breath and movement as the person passed by them.

They let a few seconds run before Raph poked his head out, to see himself, a younger version of himself, carrying a mug of hot tea to his old room he used to share with…

"We're in the right place, all right." He muttered; eyes glued to his younger self who opened their door wide to show a sick-toddler Donnie.

His brothers' and Renet all poked their heads out, with Leo and Mike looking at each other.

"I don't remember this, what's happening?" Mikey asked, he looked at Leo who shrugged, then to Raph, who failed to respond.

"Raph." Mikey said in annoyance, "what's happening?"

"Shut it, will ya? It's before Donnie and I went out." He whispered or failed to whisper his clear annoyance.

The four can see toddler Donnie propped up on his bed he shared with his brother, Raph who's sitting on the corner of the bed with him. Their voices were so high pitched, but they can hear them loud and clear.

* * *

"Thanks, Raphie." A nasally Donnie said, grabbing the steaming cup off the other toddlers' hands.

"Don't mention it." Raph crossed his arms and looked at his younger brother. "I'm stuck with you until you get better." He said annoyed, and Donnie covered his mouth with his elbow to cough.

Despite being five, his cough sounded like something from a cartoon, hoarse and ugly, which Raph grimaced to. He jumped off the bed, covering his hand so Donnie's germs wouldn't get all over him.

"I'm only sick cause we share beds, and you gave me this." Donnie said in spite and took a small sip of the tea. He shook his head in disgust, he hated tea, the tea that Papa made them drink when they were ill. "I took care of you, and now you're making up for it."

If it weren't for the fact his brother was sick, Raph would of shut his giggling brother up. "Yeah, yeah, you owe me." He stuck his tongue out but approached his ill brother and feel his brother's forehead like his Papa does.

"How do you feel?"

"Gross," his brother replied, and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, "and bored." He placed the cup down and raised his hands up to stretch. He emphasized his boredom with tilting his head back and groaning, "I hate this."

"Well, you shouldn't have gotten sick in the first place," Raph removed his hand from his brother's warm forehead. "You're feeling a little warm."

"It's from the tea," Donnie replied, "and you got me sick." He reminded his brother, again, making sure he was adding salt to the wound. He knew Raph never took care of him, but he owed him, and Papa was out to scavenge for food. So Raph's stuck with him, and Raph only got sick duty 'cause they shared rooms. It wasn't much of a choice to be fair, but Raph and Leo bumped heads all the time, and Mikey was too much for Raph to handle which is why he got stuck with his geeky brother. It was the best Papa could do for him, and Donnie wasn't too bad unless he stayed up reading his books.

"You don't have to keep reminding me." Raph rolled his eyes and squished the pillow behind Donnie's head. "You're gonna sleep?" Sleeping meant that Raph didn't have to watch his brother anymore 'cause then their Papa will be back to watch him. Which meant that Raph can have the T.V. and he can relax and…

"Nooo." Donnie narrowed his eyes, yanking the pillow from his head and placing it over his face. There was a muffled groan, before Raph pulled the pillow from his brother, which he looked at Raph with puppy eyes. "Raphie," he started, and pouted his bottom lip, "I wanna go out."

This caught Raph's attention, "out?" he uttered in disbelief, tossing the pillow to the other side of the bed.

"Yeah!" Donnie stretched his legs under the pile of blankets mounted on him and sat up again. "Leo and Mike are practicing their kata right now, so we can go the sewers and play before Papa comes."

"I don't know Don – "

"Come on, it means that you don't have to watch me be bored and we both can have some fun! We watched all the shows today, and it can be our little secret, especially since we're going at night!" Maybe Donnie shouldn't have said it so loud, but Raph waved his hand down gesturing his brother to be quiet. The idea sounded great! But he didn't want Papa finding out or worse finding them out of the lair, especially when his brother was sick.

"Okay fine, I'm in." Raph quickly whispered and was helping his brother out of the blankets. "We have to be quick though, we can't have anyone finding out, especially Leo." He said loud and clear, if Raph had a word for how Leo was a kiss up to Splinter, he'd be using it all the time. For now, he resorted to calling him Splinter jr, he would tattle tale everyone about his business that especially Papa shouldn't know about.

"Yeah, let's just go right now." Donnie got off the bed, his feet touching the ice-cold floor, but the toddler didn't care, he was finally leaving their stuffy room. He blew the candle out and grabbed Raph's arm and lugged him out of there.

The two toddlers tip-toed passed the dojo, before running out to the sewers. Despite the two only being five, their feet padded quietly against the floor before vanishing for the groups' eyesight.

* * *

Present Raph kept staring out at the entrance his past self and Donnie had just gone to. It was only moments before he would come back to grab some toys, and then would come back to an angry Splinter to tell him he can't find his brother.

Things haven't been the same since, but their father and son relationship remained broken since the incident.

"Raph." He felt a jostle and blinked to his remaining two brothers' and Renet who stared at him, with worried eyes. Sympathy and pity were one of Raph's pet peeves, and he can feel that energy coming off everyone. There was nothing to be sorry about, what's done is done, and he just wanted to fix this, to have his brother back.

"I always thought you were the one who told Donnie to leave to the sewers." Leo whispered, and all Raph can do was shake his head. Raph would never put the blame on his dead brother, but he wasn't fully at fault, Raph didn't stop him either.

Mikey's mouth was agape, did Splinter never believe Raph wasn't the total blame of the two leaving that day? Raph didn't really stop him, but they were five! And to come to think about it, every time Raph and Splinter would talk it was always angry disputes and tension. And every time he would mess up in kata, or sparring, or do something he wasn't supposed to, Splinter always gave him harsher punishments than the two.

Did Splinter blamed Raph for the death?

"Raph, I didn't know –" Was Splinter fabricating lies, or did he put his grieving and anger to the child who was part of the incident. Did Raph blame himself too?

"Drop it." Raph cut Mikey off, and all Renet can do was put a hand to her mouth. The tension in the garage grew, and everything started to make sense.

"We need to go follow them, or – or something, Shredder should come soon after Raph leaves Donnie, we can get Donnie out of there and fight Shredder." Renet said, her words cutting through the tension room. Whatever happened after, affecting not only them, not only Donnie, but affected the father and son relationship between Raph and Splinter. Renet wanted to fix it, to fix this, this isn't how everything is supposed to be. And she knows she thought the same thing, but as they discover more, everything feels wrong, and despite her friends not knowing what she knows, she knows that it's starting to feel wrong to them too.

"Yeah, okay." Leo replied, nodding his head multiple times before huffing, "if I remember Mike and I should be leaving the dojo soon, so we have to go – "

"I call the T.V.!" A loud shrill of joy echoed through the lair, before a five-year-old Michelangelo ran out of the dojo to leap over the couch.

"Now." Leo finished, eyes shutting close for a brief second.

"No, that's not fair, Mikey! You had the T.V. last, it's my turn!" Past Leo said, bowing before leaving the dojo to run up to the couch. "I wanna watch Space Heroes!"

"You've seen all season 1 already, Leo., from this morning." Mikey rolled his eyes, hiding the remote under his bum. "I want to watch Spongebob."

"We have to go." Raph said, not interested in the fight the two toddlers were gonna have. Despite the two being five, they were training to be ninja, so leaving from the way his past self has just gone to wouldn't work.

"Do you think Raphie and Donnie would wanna watch too?" Mikey asked, still refraining to give Leo the remote. He put a pillow next to him to shield Leo from attempting to grab the remote.

"No, Raphie's on sick duty, and Donnie shouldn't be leaving his bed. They can watch later once Papa comes home, now gimme!" He pushed the pillow off and tried pushing his youngest brother off the remote, and the two started to wrestle for it.

"We have another way of going." Present Leo said rolling his eyes at the two, all four would fight for the remote, then four became three. And despite the change, the lost innocence, they would fight like there was no tomorrow. Leo motioned his head to the garage door that lead to the abandoned train tracks. To this day, they rarely went out that way, and Splinter would say they would use it in case of an emergency. Such if an enemy found their secret home, they would have another exit.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Leo slowly closed the door shut so when they pull the garage open, his past self and past Mike wouldn't hear them.

And with that, Leo and Raph pulled the garage door high enough so they can get out of there pronto. They don't know when Splinter's coming, but past Raph should be coming in to grab some toys, and then after… Leo shut the garage door closed, breathing out heavily.

Renet looked at her staff glowing red, "so, we're all stuck here until my staff cools down, in the meantime, Shredder should be coming soon, but we need a way to divert him from getting to Donnie." Renet placed her staff down, looking at the three; "any ideas?"

"Yeah, once past me comes to grab the toys, we should have Donnie follow him, so he isn't alone. Cause if I remember right, Splinter should be coming around the time I came for the toys, so he'll ground us and then we would deal with the Shredder." Raph crossed his arms with a big smug.

"Okay, uhh any other ideas?" Renet asked, and silence was her only answer; "okay, Raph, lead the way."

* * *

"So, what's your bright idea, Raph, how you gonna make him follow him?" Leo asked watching the pair in the dark with trained eyes.

"Just hold on." Raph said, crouching down, waiting for the right moment.

"We should've brought our toys!" Past Raph said, splashing his feet in the puddle. Donnie was just watching him with his arms crossed. His mouth agape because of his nostrils being clogged with mucus, he hated being sick, but runny nose was far the worse out of the experience.

"Yeah we can still get them, Papa should still be out, so we have time." Donnie replied nasally, but he was regretting being out, it was always cold in the sewers but from the recent rains, it was a little worse.

"Okay, stay here, I'll be right back." Raph backed up facing him, before turning away into a sprint.

Donnie nodded, covering his sneeze. He blinked and sniffled, he stood back placing his shell against the wall and looked at his surroundings, it was too dark for his liking but also this was the only time he could play before Splinter makes him go to bed.

"Actually, Donnie, come with me!" A poorly high pitched Raph said, hoping Donnie would believe it was his actual five-year-old brother.

"Uhh," there was a hesitation in his voice, and Donnie started walking the same direction Raph spoke from, "okay, where are you?"

Present Raph pointed his direction for his brothers to follow, and said in a high-pitched tone, "over here!" The gang went into stealth mode, so Donnie can miss them and find his brother at the lair.

Thankfully, Donnie missed them, and started to jog to catch up with his brother, although he couldn't see much nor where he was.

"Okay, so now we wait for Splinter to come home and ground the two, and we just have to figure out a way to get the Shredder out of here and make sure he never time travels again." Raph said, a little easier said than done but he was proud he could make his voice believable to his brother.

Sort of.

Raph doesn't remember his past self-coming to the same spot where Donnie was seconds ago with the toys. The toddler dropped the stuff animals, looking around to find his younger brother.

"Donnie? Where did you go?" Fear settled in the pit of his stomach, Papa would kill him, it was too dark to be out here, and his brother was sick to top it all off.

"Great thinking Raph, now we're back to the square one." Leo whispered and looked at Renet. "I don't think changing anything before the incident will help, Shredder is the common denominator, we need to destroy his time travel device."

The group watched as past Raph ran back to the same direction he left minutes ago, no doubt probably getting home to tell Splinter that he can't find his brother. 'Cause as much as he would search for him, Papa always told them to get him before getting lost as well.

"Okay, so now Shredder should be coming soon, we can't mess this up." Renet looked at her staff, seeing the crimson red turn to a bright pink, it was a good sign, but it wasn't the color she needed.

"So, now what?" Mikey asked nonchalantly; "We defeat Shredder and then everything goes back to normal?"

"That's the plan." Renet said, huffing from this whole thing, they made no progress since they left home, but she couldn't just let these guys live without their brother. She wanted to fix it, the city of New York was counting on her too, (despite them not knowing who she is).

"Okay, we need to make a plan B, since our first plan didn't work." Leo eyed Raph, who put his hands up. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it's going to work."

"Well we're running out of options, so any ideas gonna work." Raph said, shrugging, "let's hear what you got."


	5. Chapter 4

"Stockman!"

Shredder strolled into the laboratory, indignantly. The huge vast of greenish blue mutagen sat right in the middle, glowing through the lab which cast a shadow over the man who slouched over his desk. Shredder stared at the man, letting a few seconds trickle before approaching him.

It wasn't until he was near inches to him that Stockman nearly jumped out his seat, not realizing his own boss was even in his lab. He hated when he tuned in on his work, Shredder and his henchmen always spook up on him on any time.

"Oh, Master Shredder, pardon me I was – "

"Have you finished?" Shredder asked, cutting the man off as he didn't care what excuse he used for not hearing him. Stockman immediately fumbled in place; his eyes glazed in fear. Shredder didn't care, though; he wanted the device now.

"Uh—yes yes, sir. Well, I still need to test it." Baxter was all over the place. He didn't know his master would ask for the device so early on when there were still bugs to fix. He was still understanding Krang tech, and for Shredder to ask something in such high demand—that he didn't even know what for—baffled him.

Shredder watched as Baxter grabbed the device. The triangle shape appliance would lead him to success.

"Here you go, Master." Baxter handed it to him and did a quick bow, clearing his throat. "It is flawed, but I got most of the bugs out."

By bugs he means it broke because the turtles damaged it when Krang tried to take over New York. And since their deal with the Krang no longer existed–the aliens down and defeated—his next best thing was to have Stockman fix it.

Shredder stared at the device, and Stockman felt like a pile of goo, unable to read the man's emotions. The quiet atmosphere made him want to scream. His master was pleased or quite the opposite of that.

"What's wrong with it?" He asked, monotone, which Baxter hated because he wasn't sure if that tone was disappointment or curiosity.

"Well," Baxter glanced away for a quick second, "it is timed, meaning if you go to the past or future, you can only be there for 10 minutes, I think it's stuck so I can't change it for now. Also, it might send you to a location you didn't want, but I am trying to – "

"Enough." Shredder demanded, and Stockman held his breath. After a second, he spoke.

"Sir," Stockman entangled his fingers together, making eye contact before looking at the ground. "Any reason you wanted to fix the time traveling device?" He asked, his voice small as if he said the wrong thing; he would get killed. Or wait, he would, which is why Stockman held off this conversation for the past three days, but curiosity was killing him, and Shredder was a smart man and had ideas like no other.

"Because Stockman," He pressed on the device, punching in coordinates as the Krang has taught him and he let it go as the device hummed and flew in the air with the pink portal opening and revealing nothing but static. "Hamato Yoshi been dead for months, but the turtles grew stronger. I need to get rid of one of them, let their team fall so I can take over New York." His voice grew colder with each word, and Baxter was trying to wrap his head around this. To go back in time and kill them, but only one of them?

"It's a great plan, Master." Baxter said, kissing his ass as always, but he was even more curious which turtle will fall to their demise. "Who will it be?"

Shredder stared at the portal, watching the pastel pink disappear and come back, proving that Stockman's device was still flawed, but he was growing impatient. He turned to Stockman; a gleeful smile hidden behind his helmet. In a low tone he said, "Donatello."

Stockman stared; bug eyed. Out of all of them, he least expected the purple one. He scratched his head, feeling like he was out of breath. He thought his target would be Leonardo or Raphael, maybe even Michelangelo.

"Master – "

"He is the brains behind the brawns, the one who calculate and know everything. Our last fight, he pulled their team together when Leonardo failed to do so. He grows strong, mentally, and needs to be taken down."

Baxter watched as his master went into the portal, mouth agape in awe and disbelief.

* * *

Coming out of the portal, Shredder looked in disgust that he was in the sewers. He knew the turtles lived down here, but his Foot bots and henchmen never could find their hideout. And if his calculations were correct, the turtles should be children, young and stupid. Playing in the sewers like no enemy exist, and so Shredder was hoping he made the right call.

Walking through the tunnels, searching for their home, he knew he had only 10 minutes; it was crucial if even a mere minute was being wasted; he had to act quick.

If Shredder were to play the lottery, he would win, because in a distance with trained ears, he heard a loud, high pitch voice; "Raaaphie?" It echoed, but Shredder knew he was in the tunnel to his left. It was out of sheer luck; he heard the exact turtle he was looking for. With growing excitement, he stomped on a puddle in front of him, hoping to catch the boy's attention to be his dear brother.

And it worked, he was hearing rushed footsteps coming his way and Shredder turned around, waiting, and hoping.

The footsteps skidded to a stop. And he heard the boy gasp, before scrambling to the wall. He had to act quick.

"Donatello." His voice boomed, strong and confident, and even if he didn't have trained eyes, anyone can see the boy attempting to hide in the shadows. Oh, to be a child, oblivious.

Saki stepped forward, closer to the boy. He had to gain his trust; it didn't have to an everlasting one, but something that won't let the terrapin run away and call his father.

The boy was trying to make a run for it, slowly but surely, so Shredder acted quick. "Donatello, I am your father's friend." He made his voice overly sweet, something he only done with his daughter when she was a small child. "Are you lost?"

And at this—watching the turtle approach him with glossy eyes and a small feeling of trust—he had the turtle right in his hands.

* * *

"So, maybe this isn't the best idea." Leo murmured to himself, rubbing his palm to his forehead. They were running out of resources, ideas, and time. "But we don't have much of a choice."

"Hey, I mean, better than mine, right?" Raph half jokingly said, and looked at his brother's face, disappointment lining on his forehead. "Hey hey, don't you worry," he wrapped an arm around over Leo's shoulder, "if this doesn't work, Renet can always take us back again. Right, Renet?"

He watched as the trainee sat cross-legged and fiddled with her scepter. The glowing red was more of a pale pink, meaning it was cooling down.

"Uh—yeah!" She said, only half listening to Raph. But her nose scrunched up when she realized Raph was comforting his brother instead of arguing. It was rare to see those two get along with plans, and for _Raph_ to _agree _with his plan? Renet groaned lowly, she knew they had to fix this ASAP.

Thankfully, Raph let go of Leo—'cause she was already a little freaked out about how different they were—and walked to Mikey.

"Mike, any updates?" Raph asked, Leo put him on watch for the Shredder, that bozo should come soon.

"Nah bros, Donnie's still wandering around, I guess. He should come soon. This is the place where he gets–" His shoulders visibly tense, and for a second he lost his wording. Despite Raph trying to comfort Leo with his plans. Mike knew it was a hasty idea, but as Leo said, they don't have much of a choice, and as his brother being leader, Mikey was every step behind him, following commands as always, or least tried. "–Anyway," Mike said, clicking his tongue in thought, "who's getting Donnie out of here before we fight?"

"You." Both Raph and Leo said simultaneously.

"Me?!" He said in a shriek, and covered his mouth, "you don't want me to fight?" He whispered rather harshly, glaring mostly at Leo

"It's not that Mikey." Leo paused, stabbing his tongue against his cheek, Mikey was the most sensitive out of the three of them, and he knew his wording had to be outright perfect. "it's just Donnie's close to the Shredder, and we need someone with fast reflexes to get him out of there, and you're the best we got."

"Yeah," Mikey's voice lowered; "I guess you're right." Mike nodded, "I am the fastest out of you two. Ha! Ha!" He exaggerated, bouncing on the balls of his feet, wanting to use his bragging rights at every chance he can get, but he froze in what seemed like mid-air.

In a distance there was a small yell, barely they could hear, "… You're not my friend!" And it felt like everything came crashing down.

"It's not in these tunnels, brah." Mikey said, hands suddenly clammy and head jerking in every direction to know where the two were coming from.

"Renet, stay at least 30 feet from us, for your own safety." Leo suddenly said, watching at their friend nod and then turned at his two younger brothers. "Let's move." Leo waved at the two, eyes delving into the deep shade of white as they heard the faint conversation coming from the West side of the tunnels. It wasn't too far, but if they didn't hurry…

* * *

"No tricks," they heard, the pause making their stomach do flips because that voice of their nemesis, it was so sickly sweet and fake that anyone could have known he was lying miles away. But it was towards a child - their brother - whose mind was filled with innocence and trust that have built between the two in such a short time that made them all sick to their stomachs. "We are all friends here."

Out of nowhere, Mikey slid underneath the Shredder and scooped Donnie up before taking a mad dash out of the tunnel.

"What the—you fool!" Shredder turned to an incoming Sai and blocked it with his gauntlet. His muscle tense as he was able to push the Sai out of Raphael's hand. It spun to the ground, and Raphael looked at him with undeniable anger.

"You monster!" Raph yelled, coarse and raw, raising his other Sai to attack, but Leonardo swooped in and blocked the incoming gauntlet towards his brother.

He swept his feet back, sword pointed at Saki.

"Monster?" Shredder said, almost in defensive and hurt. "I was doing you three a favor, and it sure seemed my planned work for you to have followed me here." Despite the mask, they knew he was smiling, they knew that his plans may as well been calculated and cruel. He planned to kill their brother for—for what?

"You serve no honor, Saki." Leo deepened his voice, his eyes never leaving Shredder's, as if he scared if he blinked, he would attack.

"You don't get to decide what I serve, child." Half of Saki's body illumined in a pastel pink color and turned to see the portal mere inches away from him. Time was up, and he had to go.

Realization hit Raphael; this monster would not leave without a fight.

"Oh, no you don't!" Raph yelled, realizing what Shredder was doing as he entered the portal halfway before being shoved in with Raphael.

"Raph!" Leo yelled before he can follow them, the portal closed, leaving specks of pink dust.

* * *

It surprised Mikey at how quiet Donnie was. He literally balled up into his arms, as Mike continued to run through the sewers, hearing Donnie's heartbeat and his own beat so loud it might as well echo through the sewers.

After what felt like minutes, but probably were just a few seconds after he snatched Donnie from Shredder, the boy poked his head up. And Mikey glanced down, sad, confused brown eyes pooling in tears with confident blue ones.

"I know you." Donnie spoke, and Mikey's heartbeat even faster.

"No–no you don't." Was all he can say, and Donnie gave a quick laugh.

"Yeah! You're my brother. But older?" He hugged his bicep as Mike ran faster. He didn't know his identity would get revealed so quickly by a five-year-old. But the first time Donnie was… killed, he identified Raph. Maybe it was his mask?

He approached the lair, well stayed a 100 feet away from it so his brothers and dad don't identify him either. He gently put the child down and went on his knee to make eye contact with him.

"Okay, you got me." Mike gave him a goofy grin, trying to make the child feel relaxed and earn his trust. "I came 'cause that mean man could have hurt you, but now you're safe!"

At that Donnie's face paled, and Mikey gave him a slight pout. "I know, I know, but listen buddy, what happened today never happened, okay? Don't tell your brothers or father. Can you promise me that?" Donnie feverishly nodded, and Mike gave him a quick pat on the shell. "Okay, I'll see you soon then." Mike gave him a wink and disappeared in the shadows.

Donnie watched him go, and then stared at the slice on his palm, tilting his head, trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.

* * *

Mike cautiously went to the tunnel his brothers were supposedly fighting Shredder but met only Leo and Renet.

"Leo!" Mike caught up to his brother, who was discussing something with Renet, and cut him off, "where's Raph, and the Shredder?" His gut twisted in unsureness, and he couldn't hear them fighting from a distance, so he simply was confused. He was only gone for less than five minutes. And top of that, he wanted to ask about what just happened with Donnie and him, but he pushed it to the side for now.

"Shredder somehow opened the portal, and Raph followed him in him." Leo stoically said and watched as Renet bent down and rubbed her finger over the fallen pink dust.

"Hmm, I wonder…" She whispered, pulling her staff, and collecting the dust from the ground with it.

In a few seconds the staff was now a dark blue, but Renet could still use it according to her. "Ah ha!" Renet lifted her staff, reading whatever language it was.

"What?" Both Leo and Mike said, coming closer to her.

"Shredder may be all smart, but his portal left dust!"

"So…?" Leo gave her a confused look, followed by Mikey, who scratched his head.

"Well, it gave me the exact coordinates of where the two went, but we have to hurry, it seems as Shredder's portals timed, and we can't miss them or we will never know if they'll change to a different location." She said in a rushed tone, and before Leo can ask her to open the portal, she already did and the three jumped in.

* * *

He crashed on the pavement on his shell, quickly pulling out his Sais to block the incoming gauntlet. Raph exhaled a little too loudly. This man would not give him any breaks, was he? He didn't even know where they were; it was just some dark alley in hopefully New York.

Raph tried to look at his surroundings, such as Splinter has always taught them, and only saw a dumpster filled with trash bags. And the black stairwells from the apartment towards his right. But Raph didn't have the time to scan everywhere when he had his arch nemesis trying to kill him.

The sound of metal clashed again, before Raph rolled out of the way and quickly went on his feet. Man, Shredder was tiring, and Leo wasn't here to play hero.

"Shredder!" Raph roared out, attacking his opponent as his Sai hit his armor. They've only fought Shredder less than a handful of times and were beat each time. But Raph's goal was to take Shredder down, which was asking for a lot since they never beat him.

"Child, you are no match for me." Shredder said, blocking the Sai, and pulled it out of Raphael's hand.

Raphael put his guard down for one second, and in that second Shredder used that advantage to kick him, hard enough for him he flew, hitting the dumpster with his shell.

Raph gave out a huff as his body fell onto the asphalt. He looked up to see the Shredder towering over him and closed his eyes as Shredder raised the gauntlet to kill him.

If only his brothers were here…

A clang of metal made Raph open his eyes and see Leo blocking the gauntlet mere inches from him.

Raph sighed in relief, seeing Mikey wield his nun-chucks, and Renet in the back watching it all go down.

"Missed me?" Leo asked, pulling his sword up to deflect Shredder's weapon.

"Shut up." Raph said and rolled over to his feet.

* * *

Quickly, there was getting down one by one. Mikey's nun-chuck wrapped around the gauntlet to stop Shredder from hurting his bros', but the man didn't falter, instead pulled said nun-chuck and Michelangelo careening to the ground. Mike gave a rattled breath, having his breath knocked out.

Leo came in, like a knight in shining armor, and blocked the gauntlet from hurting his youngest brother. But he outmatched him, and Shredder brought his gauntlet to the turtle's arm. Before Leo can even process anything, the man balled up his fists and hit him under the jaw. Leo stepped back, dazed, but Shredder's not done.

He strikes again, this time to his head, and Leo lowered his guard, giving a quick glance to Raph in defeat. Already he was getting battered and bruised, before falling to his knees.

"Inexperienced fools." He stabbed Mikey's arm, before kicking the boy's shell away from him. Saki looked at Raph, clenching tightly to his Sais. He was right, Raph hated to admit, they barely fought with the Shredder, and he had years of experience than some 16-year-old turtles.

He was doing this for his brother, though; he watched in the corner of his eye as Leo mustered up the power to go help Mikey and he twisted his body quickly to avoid getting stabbed. But Shredder was quicker and grabbed his arm and pulled it out of his socket. Raph cried out, sinking to his knees hastily as Leo.

"Raph!" His brothers were slowly going down, and despite feeling the bruising on his face and arms and just his whole-body sore. Leo had to continue fighting, Shredder's not backing down.

* * *

Renet was watching the whole thing go down, and despite having a fiery attitude, she knew trying to join in and fight was a stupid idea. She would be down quicker than the three were, but she was running out of options.

She may be a time sorcerer, and does not know how to beat the Shredder, but maybe she can use that as an advantage. She watched as Raph's socket popped and closed her eyes from the pop sound. Her face paled, she never seen her friends defeated, and watching them wasn't making her feel any better; she wasn't contributing and only watched everything from behind.

Leo was going at him, but something pink sparked behind the Shredder, and her eyes grew double. He was leaving again, and her friends were in no condition to fight him.

She watched as Shredder grabbed Leo by his neck, and adrenaline kicked in because one second, she was watching it go down, and the next she was running towards the group.

She welded her staff, not even realizing she was shouting or what she was saying as she slammed the staff to the ground that the asphalt shook. A portal popped up in front of Shredder's, and with adrenalin still pumping, she hit him with her staff, which made him release Leo.

"Who are you?" He roared, confused, but wouldn't show that to the girl.

"I'm," she tried to hit him again, make him fall into the portal, but he blocked her staff; "Renet." Her voice shrunk, her worst fear coming true.

Leo staggered to his feet, not having time to collect himself as he jumped, kick Shredder to the portal. The portal shut immediately, only hearing a quick yell from the man, and Renet turned to hug Leo.

"Are you guys okay?" She cried out as Leo rubbed his neck, sorely.

"Ugh. Yeah." Raph said, holding his arm towards his chest like it was an invisible sling. "I just need to pop my shoulder back."

"We can do that in the lair." Leo's said hoarsely, coughing to get rid of the feeling in his throat. "How bout you Mike?"

"I'm fine, bros." They all looked at Mikey, holding onto his arm with his wrist band pressing on his bicep like a bandage.

"How did you do that, Renet?" He asked, slowly getting up so dizziness won't hit him. "Where did you sent him?"

"I—I don't know what came over me, honestly." She rubbed the back of her helmet shyly. "And I'm not sure where I sent him, but I hope it's far from here." She chuckled and helped Raph get up.

"Well, I guess we're done with him." Leo replied nonchalantly. He hugged his brothers' thankful that they were okay. "We should go back to the lair and get you guys patched up."

They all nodded, Raph holding his arm tenderly and Renet looked at Leo. "I'll stay once I know everything's back to normal, and then I'll have to go back to report this to Lord Simultaneous that everything's okay again."

"Right, that's fine. Let's go." Leo said, and he opened the manhole to go through the sewer, and see if the timeline was back to normal, at least for Renet's standard.

* * *

A/N: Ahh! This is so far my longest chapter yet! I was debating to extend another scene, but instead I plan to put it all in next chapter! I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and give me mercy since fight scenes are not for me, haha. Also I do hope you guys are safe during this Pandemic :(! I love you all, and know we can get through this!


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